SAW VI (2009)

After V, I, like most was left disheartened with the franchise, the twist wasn't very good and it asked so many more questions, so there was a lot riding on this sixth instalment, did IV & V writers Melton and Dunstan deliver? we shall see.

"SAW the sixth" starts a little differently, for the first time in the franchise, SAW DOES CURRENT AFFAIRS! that's right! in the opening "trap" we have two bankers (who irresponsibly gave loans to those who could never pay them back), have to quite literally give their "pound of flesh" in order to survive, I'm sure I wasn't the only one to get a kick out of that, the winner however doesn't seem fully "appreciative" of the life they got away with. the bulk of the film however, continues the escapades of SAW's partner in crime (again, I don't want to ruin it so I won't say who it is) and how they are dealing with increasing suspicion, also we inter-cut to a health insurance broker who has denied hundreds claims to health insurance (one of them being Jigsaw) and is seemingly out of touch with the value of human life, again a hot topic at the time of release (fall 2009). the film winds and winds, and manages, with it's finale, to encompass scenes way back when from III, and brings the current situation into light with a satisfying (though not brilliant) pay-off.

In the scheme of thing's. I would consider myself a fan of Kevin Greutert's first film in the franchise, it's two major flaws are that
1) I'm not convinced a thriller/horror franchise, 6 films in, is the best way to make a topical statement about the government and economics (though there was plenty of satisfaction to be had watching someone who preyed on the financially fragile having to hack off their own belly fat).
and 2) It had to clean up after V, that film was sort of a watery set up for this one, which it should never be, the first four did a good job of encompassing the previous instalments while being self contained (though it would help to see what came before).

Conclusion: VI, more so than the rest of the series has to be seen in context of the franchise, but a HUGE improvement on it's direct predecessor 6/10

SAW II (2005)

So begins the slew of sequels, following hot on the heals of the first, SAW II was released just a year later, in many ways it was the original SAW film in the sense that it set the template for the rest, and features the traps and "players" in equal measure as Jigsaw and his accolades.

Instead of a measly 2 guys, directer/co-writer Darren Lynn Bousman teams up with original screenwriter Leigh Wannell to bring us a roster of 7 people, each seemingly with a dark past, once the game begins the heat is on to find a cure to the nerve gas being pumped into them through the ventilation system, while outside the house we finally see Jigsaw being "caught", but is that all it seems?
we see Jigsaw<(Tobin Bell) having a back and fourth with Cop Eric Mathews (Donnie Wahlberg, brother of Mark) and discover that Mathews' son is one of our house-mates. connections between the group start to become apparent, but it is not until the end we find out how important Eric was to the rest of the group.

While lacking the first's claustrophobic nausea, the second one does spread it's wings a little, the victims had a chance to explore their surroundings, and a sort of anti-group dynamic was allowed to form, no time for love interests or comradery, these people seem to be more interested in saving themselves. that said, given the bigger scope of the film it brought with it the negatives that would plague the remaining sequels, the more technical something is the more variables there are, and a lot of what the group do or decide appears to be way too circumstantial.

Conclusion: though in contention for the best of the sequels, it can't match up to the first for depth, emotion of confinement, but we still see basic and believable traps at work (for example the pit of syringes.... *shudders*), whereas in later films everything starts looking like over-mechanical uber-traps are the only devices to hand. 6/10.